Posts tagged facebook
Two former eBay colleagues today launched their next generation job ad platform Adzuna, offering ‘jobs in London, the UK and beyond’ and integrating some nice social features.
‘Adzuna Connect’ allows you to find out which of your connections work at the companies who are currently hiring: nice to see some social innovation in the recruitment space.
In the Social war between Google and Facebook, might egosurfing prove Google’s secret weapon?
Google and Facebook are battling hard over the Social web. Google’s trying hard to catch-up to Facebook’s lead, tying 25% of all of their staff’s bonuses to the firm’s success in this space. With the launch of the +1 button, they’ve belatedly acknowledged the role that social is set to play in their core business, search. And yet, for +1 to be a success, it needs Google to make it truly social, both to help reliably detect spam and make the most of the data generated. Google needs to finally demonstrate that it can ‘do’ social, something at which it’s so far mostly failed.
But might they have a secret weapon in these social wars?
A Pew Internet study in 2007 found that almost half of all people ‘Egosurfed’: they Googled their own name to see what results appeared. I’d bet that proportion is much higher these days. Whether simple curiosity, or a desire to manage your personal brand online, knowing what appears when you search for yourself is basic internet hygiene.
On a recent Egosurfing trip, I noticed something I’d not seen before: my Google Profile page in the first page of results. And it wasn’t just true for me. Googling for Sevitz, and even my dad showed up profile pages in the first screen of results on searches for their names:
Might Google be boosting the ranking of Profile pages in search results to get egosurfers to visit them and update them? I know that’s what it made me do. That would be a bit, well, evil though, surely? So perhaps that’s a yes then.
This relies on people already having Profile pages, but it’s not hard to imagine a more evil version that prompts you to set up a profile for a name search if that’s you.
Google already has several of the key ingredients for a good social network. Google’s Picasa’s arguably a better photo sharing site than Facebook’s (even after the recent revamp); Google’s YouTube videos must be one of the most shared items on Facebook; data from Gmail could help them quickly construct the social graph. I still think they’re playing catch-up, and would still back Facebook to win this war, but egosurfing might help Google in the fight.
After my holiday in Argentina, I wrote about how prevalent Facebook seemed to be: more prevalent even than the web.
Turns out that it’s not just Argentina. Whilst at home in Skipton this weekend it’s hard to avoid signs promoting Facebook pages.
I failed to snap the pub with the Facebook page QR code in the window, but here were a couple more I noticed in the next 5 minutes:
Stanforth’s Famous Pie Shop (which is actually quite hard to find on Facebook, proving that they haven’t managed to get search right yet):
The entrance to Skipton Woods (also harder to find on Facebook than I’d imagined. I’ve always known it as ‘Skipton Woods’, but the FB page is ‘Friends of Skipton Wood’ - Facebook didn’t expand to include the pluralisation when I searched for ‘Skipton Woods’)
Or why I don’t Like Google’s new social recommendation button.
When Facebook launched their Like button, I wrote about how the weak signals provided by users Liking content across the web could prove a powerful weapon for Facebook in a looming battle with Google to help users discover content.
“Likes” could be used to infer significance in the way that Google had done for a decade with backlinks, but with some additional advantages over backlinks:
- Over time, a far broader spread of the population has the potential to “Like” than is ever likely to create a backlink: the liking signals are thus more powerful
- By knowing the identify of Likers, Facebook has a better chance to avoid the issues of spam that have become associated with backlinks and Google.
- Having built out the social graph, Facebook is also able to use the preferences of friends to build on the raw ‘Like’ data.
Google’s clearly worried about this, and announced their ‘Like’ equivalent, the +1 button this week.
It’s a valiant attempt to play catch-up, and a huge hat-tip to Zuckerberg’s genius in extending the Like button across the entire web. But I’m not sure it’s enough:
- Where’s the incentive for users to “+1” something? In particular I can’t fathom why a consumer would +1 a search result listing, presumably before even visiting the associated site. Unless Google can make Google Profiles a credible competitor to Facebook, I don’t see many doing this. Given their track record in social, neither do I see Google making Profiles a credible competitor to Facebook.
- On the other hand, you can guarantee that SEOs, particularly those with the darker shades of headwear, will be all over this. The potential incentive of a higher ranking position means that non-average-consumers will attempt to game the system. This is bad for Google.
- Without Facebook’s Social Graph advantage, it will be harder for Google to weed out +1 spam. Also, they won’t have Facebook’s advantage of being able to understand preferences based on connections preferences. Even if they were to use their Gmail data (which, presumably they won’t do after the Buzz debacle) there are still far fewer Gmail users than Facebook users.
Google’s best hope for success is via YouTube, their only real social success. They need to replace the thumbs up “Like” (!) button with +1, and start building the social graph between friends on YouTube who’ve never posted videos (rather than just subscribers to video channels). YouTube videos are probably one of the most shared items on Facebook: Google needs to attempt to capture this sharing directly in YouTube and cut-out the middle man. But given Facebook’s head start in mapping the social graph, this won’t be easy.
In short, I’m still backing Facebook to win this war: it’s going to be easier for Facebook to build search than it is for Google to build social.
(For the opposite opinion, read Tom Critchlow’s article on SEOmoz, which also explains +1 in more detail)
I’ve just got back from a 3-week trip to Argentina, mostly getting away from the world of tech and enjoying the simple life.
One thing though that was hard to avoid was Facebook. Ryan Carson blogged last week to say exactly what I’d concluded based on my trip: Facebook is now the Internet.
I arrived in Buenos Aires and spent a few days walking around the city. The public parks in the city all have Facebook pages, and these are heavily promoted on the signs at the entrances:
Sign at Entrance to Plaza Vicente Lopez y Planes
Someone had even added a sticker to this sign, proclaiming that the guy after whom the park had been named “liked” this place!
Sign from Plaza General San Martin, with “Like” Sticker
And why not? It’s far easier to set up a Facebook page than to create your own website. No technical skills are needed and it comes with built-in community features.
I left Buenos Aires for Bariloche and had booked into a hostel. They handed me a registration form and I started filling it in: name, passport number, country of origin, arrival date, departure date … Facebook! They didn’t ask for my email address, or a phone number. But they wanted to know by Facebook page (and be my friend?). I declined.
Amongst fellow travellers, it also became clear that Facebook has overtaken email as the defacto contact method. People would ask you for your ‘Facebook’ as a way to keep in touch. Again, it’s easy to see why: sharing photos is a snip, messaging feels both more personal and less geeky than email.
Lastly, lots of small businesses would tout their Facebook presence and encourage customers to befriend them, like this glacier-trip firm in Calafate:
Facebook pages, not web pages. Facebook messages not email. Should we be worried about one organisation taking over the most common functions of the internet?
Facebook ads underwent a subtle change today. If you haven’t noticed, ads that take the user off the site are now displaying the URL that you’ll be taken to, aping Google’s approach with paid search ads in an effort to increase transparency to the user.
At least that’s the theory.
I noticed these when I just visited Facebook, and was particularly drawn to an ad (see left) that followed much the winning formula we struck upon at Swoopo: great product, incredible price and an urging not to miss out. They’d upped the ante by including a photo of Stephen Fry (or at least a lookalike) holding an iPhone, hinting that he was the winner.
This in itself wasn’t much of a surprise. Swoopo’s success has thrown up hordes of clones who’ve copied the basic format and then set about luring in bidders.
What surprised me though was that the ad was apparently from LivingSocial, the Groupon-alike. Has LivingSocial jumped on the penny auction bandwagon too? The copy suggested it might indeed be a daily deal site, rather than penny auctions. It seemed unlikely, but, intrigued I clicked through.
A few redirects later I landed on SwipeAuctions.com, a penny auction site that pulls a lot of clever punches to try to tempt visitors to join in. Not LivingSocial at all.
Is this a simple bug? It could be, but I suspect that SwipeAuctions have found a clever way to make the display URL show livingsocial.com to increase click-through rates. Can anyone work out how they’re doing it?
Although my reposting of the RSA Animate video generated lots of visits, the post I’m asked about the most is the one about the Facebook vs. Google battle and the need to optimize for discovery within the Open Graph.
If you haven’t noticed, there have been a few recent developments:
- Facebook has apparently said that all “Liked” pages will show up in search results (although some testing seems to show that this isn’t happening yet)
- Facebook also seems to have auto-generated scores of new Community pages, populating them with content from Wikipedia and public postings. Look at this example for Floristry, or this one for Self Catering, and even this one for my old friend Telebid. They’re soliciting contributors to these pages at the moment, and (somewhat obscurely) asking for the “Official Facebook Page” (which when you click it asks for a Wikipedia article or official site URL: I don’t understand - anyone else clearer?).
- (What’s significant is that these Community pages are being returned when you search on Facebook, and also being promoted via Social Ads. I first stumbled across one when I saw an ad saying four of my friends allegedly liked Reading. I was curious as to why this somewhat dull town just west of London aroused such passion: it turns out that my friends aren’t alone: over 4 million people apparently like Reading!)
- Facebook are also asking for beta testers for a new product that looks suspiciously like a questions/ answers platform to rival Yahoo Answers and Quora. This gives them another string in their bow to rival Google for queries.
- Google, undoubtedly recognising these risks are rumored to be launching their own Facebook rival, in an attempt to wrest the ownership of identity from Zuckerberg’s sweaty paws.
With Google standing off with China on the eastern front, the battle on the home front is getting more and more interesting. Should Google just Keep Calm and Carry On, or are they right to take the battle to Facebook?
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Selected Further Reading from All Facebook:
A friend asked me how to add Facebook Like buttons to their Tumblr blog. Thinking others might ask the same question, I thought I’d just write it up here.
[Updated: Since writing this post I’ve updated my Tumblr theme to an off-the-shelf design with integrated Facebook Like buttons … but did use the method below to add Facebook Like buttons (and Twitter buttons) to my other blog, Best Practice eCommerce]
Hot to add Facebook Like Buttons in 5 Simple Steps
It’s pretty straightforward to add Facebook Like Buttons to your Tumblr blog. Just follow these steps:
- Go to http://www.tumblr.com/dashboard and log in to Tumblr
- Click on ‘Customize’ - in the right hand menu, with the spanner logo by it
- Click on ‘Theme’ in the top menu bar
- If you’re not already, click on ‘Use Custom HTML’
- Copy and paste the following into the HTML, just before {/block:Posts}
<iframe src=”http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href={URLEncodedPermalink};layout=standard&show_faces=true&
width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light” scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0” allowTransparency=”true” style=”border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:75px”></iframe>
This adds Facebook Like buttons at the bottom of all your Tumblr posts, no matter what form they take. If you want to change the appearance of the Like button, there’s a tool on the Facebook site that helps you do it here. All you need to remember is that the subject of the ‘Like’, which follows the href= text needs to be {URLEncodedPermalink}: this just automatically makes the subject of the ‘Like’ the URL of that particular post. Clear? If not, just post a comment and I’ll try to clarify.
If you’re interested in this, you might also be interested in my other posts about Facebook Like buttons:
Facebook is the new Google. For marketers, it’s time to forget about the logo and think about your OGO. OGO? Open Graph Optimization.
There’s been lots of chatter about Facebook’s announcements at f8 regarding the Social Graph. I’m still not sure that everyone appreciates the power that this is going to give Facebook.
A quick recap of some of the features that I think are going to rock the web:
- You can now ‘Like’ anything on the web (so long as the site owner has enabled this feature)
- These ‘Likes’ can be set-up to convey structured data about precisely what they are: a restaurant, a band, a celebrity or a 16GB WiFi iPad?
- Facebook is making it super-easy to register and log-in to other websites using your Facebook login details
- They will share your structured ‘Likes’ (along with pretty much everything else in your Facebook profile) with these other sites, to allow those sites to tailor what they show to you.
Meaning Facebook becomes the new Google:
- Facebook is already the biggest source of traffic to the most popular web sites.
- Everyone interested in getting more traffic (so, err, make that everyone) is going to start adding Like buttons. 50,000 did it in just the first week. It’s dead easy. I managed it in no time, and the last thing I coded was a robot to follow a white line in 1993 using Pascal.
- Likes are the new links. There’s going to be far, far more liking going on than there is linking from sites. Most everyone has a Facebook account these days. Virtually no-one has a website. The information from all these ‘Likes’ will give Facebook a huge advantage over Google in scoring relevance and authority. Especially so because of their structured (semantic) nature, Facebook knows what you’re liking, not that it’s just another web page.
- PageRank becomes PersonRank: how important are your ‘Likes’ vs. other peoples? That depends: it depends on how well I know you, on how liberal (or frugal) you are with your liking, and on how much you, in turn are Liked. Soon, we’ll all know our PersonRank score, and be trying to increase it. Oprah PR = 10, Richard & Judy PR = 4, your PR =?
We don’t see all this yet, because Facebook has, in essence, only just begun ‘crawling’ the web. But expect them to move very forcefully into discovery. It won’t be search as we currently know it, but soon you’ll find yourself finding everything else via Facebook.
So time to start thinking about your Open Graph Optimization (OGO) strategy. I’ll share some thoughts in my next post about where to start.
(And yes - OGO - I agree, it’s a terrible acronym. Come up with a better alternative and you get to be mayor of NigelWhiteoak.com for the day. Gamification of naming FTW.)
One interesting thing is that you can (technically at least) create Like buttons for any web page. The Like button doesn’t actually make it clear what you’re liking. I thought this might have some comedy potential. I was right. Go on, like this then check your Facebook wall. It’s nothing embarrassing, I promise. Just funny.
I’m guessing this might be against some terms of use perhaps, but thought it interesting that it is so easy to do.
